The Pickens sentinel. [volume] (Pickens, S.C.) 1871-1903, 1887-06-23
WOMEN RULING A CITY.
An" Doing 1t Fully as Well as Masculine
OHcialS Could.

Galina, Kan, Letter to Memphis Anneol,
have just returned from O trip on the
Santa Fe road, west. Syracuse, sixteen
miles from the Colorado line, was the
Mecca of my pilgrimage, because here,
April 4, thoy elected q CITY council of
women, and / was bent upon seeing the
town that had made this innovation. and
the women who were filling the council
chairs. l wanted to ask tho people how
IL came about and how it was working
The first of these ladies introduced to
mo was Mrs. T.. B. Barbour, fair-faced,
gentle-manncred woman, with an un-
mlstakable air of business about her. I
found this accounted for by the fact that
she Is business woman. Her husband
does largo and complicated business;
| the books are entirely in her charge.
| Mrs. ii. ID. Knott is busir ess woman,
too. L expect much Of Mrs. Knott in
the management of their Suffrage Socie-
ty, because of her experience in Iowa as
president of the Eighth District Woman
Suffrage Society. Mrs. Coggeshall SAYS
they were very sorry to lose Mrs. Knott
from their ranks. She is chairman of
the Syracuse aldermanic force. Mrs,
nj. nj. Riggles is quiet little woman, q
careful and conscientious mother and
housewife. She has way of making
up her mind for herself and standing
firmly by her convictions. She has a
reputation among Syracuse male citizens
for being person of excellent judg-
ment. Mrs. S. II. Coo is woman of
excellent ability, with enough conservat
ism to keep her enthusiasm in proper
check. No one of these women is more
anxious to do exactly right than is Mrs.
Coe. She is sister to Mrs. Lemert,
president of the Saxon Equal-Sufirage
Society, organized at Dodge City by
Mrs. Saxon and named fog her. She
has several such Damesakes in Kansas.
Mrs. L. ~. Smartwood, the fifth men,
her, dld not see, although l mado an
effort to do so. She was confined to her
nome by sickness; but J. am told that
she is woman of ability and that she is
by no means behind her sistera in any
regulate for her position. NY short
acquaintance with these women con
vinced me that sitting in council chairs
and wrestling with questions of city
pohty nave had no effect to unseX them
-whateyer that may bo-for these were
as womanly women as / have ever seen.
l looked in vain for masculine tenden-
CLOS. There was not q hint Of il in dress
or manner Meeting them on the street
or IN the cars, you would never guess
that they were oity officials, From con-
versation with them 1 learned that they
we're, exceedingly anxious to make their
administration a just one-one that
would advance the best interests of the
city5 and when they spoke of advancing
the interests of their city they betrayed
the fact that they had in mind the city's
moral as we'll as temporal prosperity.
1t is said of them that thoy arc doing
better work than tho body of men who
composed the previous council Their
townspeople say they were elected be-
cause "somobody proposed it and every
body was pleased with the idea;" be
cause cit was believed that they would
mako excellent officers" because "the
temperance people thought women
wouldn't be afraid to enforce the pro
hibitory law" because eve wanted to
advertise CUr town"-tiis last from q
member of real estate firm; "because
women would take time to do the work
we'll and thoughtfully." Altogether, l
was pleased with my first sight of q
womal council. This is the only one in
the United States.